


Forever, For a Bit Longer

by gingergallifreyan



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bad Wolf Rose Tyler, Episode Fix-It: s02e13 Doomsday, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, also, maybe some smuts later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-25
Updated: 2018-02-25
Packaged: 2019-03-24 01:21:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13800378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingergallifreyan/pseuds/gingergallifreyan
Summary: Rose was supposed to end up trapped in Pete's World, but the Bad Wolf has other plans.





	Forever, For a Bit Longer

**Author's Note:**

> Ach, I know I said I wouldn't write one of these (I love you, Tentoo; I'll write some happy for you later to make up for it :'( ), but this is where the prompt wanted me to go, so I did it. (No disrespect to fix-it stans!!) I received several Ten x Rose prompts, so those will be added onto this as more chapters. This will *not* be a series 3/4 rewrite, though Martha and Donna and co. may feature later. I may or may not touch on the Pete's World crew returning. As I said, it won't be a rewrite.
> 
> For badwolfinthetxrdis, who prompted "Quiet Me please?? With Ten helping Rose through a panic attack?" (from [this list](http://gingergallifreyan.tumblr.com/post/170980680030/drabbles-send-me-characters-and-a-prompt) of prompts).
> 
> If you see anything else from the list you'd like prompted for Ten x Rose (or other specified pairings), let me know in the comments or inbox me on tumblr!

“Rose? Rose, what’s wrong?”

She’d suddenly had to catch herself on the white wall. She’d already been crying, having sealed off her mother a world away, but this was different. Her eyes were wide, and her chest heaved.

He touched her shoulder. “Rose? Talk to me.”

“I fell. I could feel it. I was falling.”

“But you didn’t. You’re right here, with me.”

“I was on the other side, trapped over there. You were gone!” She desperately clung to him.

“I’m right here. I’ve got you. Here, let me see.” Something niggled at him in the back of his brain, and he whipped out the sonic screwdriver as she stepped back for him to scan. “Ripples of time. You’re seeing what could have been if I hadn’t used this to move the lever." He flipped the sonic in the air and caught it, stuffing it back in his jacket pocket. “I can help if you’d like. Want me to poke around a bit?” 

“How?”

“Telepathy. In your mind.”

She studied him and nodded after a moment, tears still spilling down her cheeks.

He held out his hand. “Come on.” He glanced wearily around the cavernous space. “Let’s get back to the TARDIS. I’ve had enough of this place.” He squeezed her hand as they walked away, the tendrils of time reaching out to him in her touch. His hearts ached for her, how she must be feeling with this time distortion around her. He wanted nothing more than to calm the panic that must have been coursing through her veins.

What he didn’t show her was how much his hearts were pounding as well. He could have lost her… but he hadn’t. Some small mercy in the universe allowed him to keep her, and he needed to know why. The universe, in his experience, was not kind. It could take as easily as it gave, and he was desperate to keep what he’d been given.

Once inside the blue box, he squeezed her hand again and dropped it to fiddle with the console. “Library?” 

She nodded.

“I’ll meet you there. Let me set us into the vortex.”

“I can still feel it.”

“I know. I could feel it while I held your hand. Go on, slip into your comfy pyjamas. I’ll join you in a moment.”

She slowly walked to the corridor.

He peered up at the central column once she was out of earshot. “What’s up, Old Girl? What trick have you got up your sleeve now? Ripples of time shouldn’t last this long. This distortion is attached to her, like it’s part of her.” He swallowed. “Like she shouldn’t be here. She should have fallen into the void, or like she said, been trapped on the other side somehow.” He braced himself on both hands and leaned forward. “I was supposed to lose her today.” He lifted his eyes and almost glared at the green glow. “And that is  _ not _ going to happen. I’m not going back to fix this. If you think for a moment I’m going to let that happen…” He ducked his head again, and then backed away suddenly. “That’s not going to happen. I’m figuring this out _ now.”  _ He walked briskly to the galley and made two cups of tea.

When he made it to the library, he found Rose curled up in the corner of the sofa. He called her name softly from the door so as not to alarm her. 

She gently smiled. “Hi, Doctor.”

“Feeling better?”

She shook her head. “Not really. A little nauseated.”

He nodded. “Ah. Well, maybe some tea will help.”

“Will you be able to help with telepathy?”

He sat next to her and held out her mug. “Yep. This time distortion around you is a bit more than standard. I’ll figure it out, though.” 

She pushed herself up and took it from him. “Is there any way to see my mum again?”

His hand found hers. “I will try. I can’t make any promises, but I swear I’ll try my hardest to find a way.”

She rested her head on his shoulder. “She was all I had on Earth.”

“I know. I’m sorry it turned out this way.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“It is, in a way. Your fault, too, actually.”

She lifted her head. “How?”

“Torchwood was created after we left Scotland. Apparently, Queen Victoria was far from amused with us.”

“Oh.”

“Yep.”

“All that for a tenner.”

He sighed. “I’m not sure it was worth it now.”

She rubbed her thumb on the rim of her mug. “What will we do now?”

“I need to know what’s going on with you before we do anything.”

“Let’s figure it out, then.” She set her mug on the table next to the sofa and turned her body towards him. “Go inside my mind.”

He mirrored her position, his knee brushing against hers. “Just relax and close your eyes. Picture a corridor with lots of doors. And that timeline you’re feeling, let that door be open. I’m going to place my fingers here, on your temple. And now, my mind will reach out for yours.” He brushed against the barrier of her mind with his. 

She inhaled sharply.

He dropped his hands. “Alright?”  


“Yes. Just wasn’t sure what to expect. Keep going.”

He brushed against her mind again. “You’ve got to let me in, Rose.”

She opened her mind to him, and he tentatively stepped inside. She felt like… home. Warm, light, full of hope.

“You’re smiling.”

“You make me so happy.”

She pulled his hand away. “I do?”

He opened his eyes to find her staring at him. “Of course you do.”

Her eyes fell. “You don’t normally say things like that. Must be bad, then.”

It was true; he was never usually outright. He veiled any admission of feelings for her in clever quips and goofy grins and letting her name roll off his tongue and reaching for her hand, just because. Perhaps it was the feeling she gave him in her mind which had loosened his lips.   


“And you’re not saying anything. Am I dying or something?”

“No! No, you’re not dying. Certainly not. I would have felt that right away, any entropy. Your mind is… perfect.”

“Then what is it?” Her voice shook with tears.

He swiped one away as it trailed down her cheek. “Why don’t we find out together?”

She leaned in and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’m sorry. It’s been a long day.”

"I know. I'm sorry, too." He stroked her back for a while.

She huffed. “Let’s just get this over with. I want to sleep.”

“Alright.” He brushed her temples after she pulled back. He entered her mind again and saw light pouring from an open door. “That’s the one, I bet. Let’s put this timeline to rest.”

She nodded.

He stepped inside the door, glancing around at the strands of time strung from wall to wall, floor to ceiling, erratic and chaotic. He was engulfed by… grief, anxiety, hopelessness. No wonder she’d been a mess since the void sealed itself. He touched one of the strands.

Suddenly, he was in the other universe, pounding on a wall. 

“Take me back!” Rose’s voice screamed. Her chest heaved with sobs as she fought collapsing against the cursed white wall. She glanced back at Pete and Jackie and Mickey. “I’m not leaving,” she eventually said. “He’ll find a way through. He’ll come for me, like he always does.”

“Sweetheart--” Jackie started.

“He’ll come get me. I know he will. If anyone can figure it out, he can.”

Mickey sighed and pulled out his mobile. “I’ll go order a pizza or something. Jackie, what do you want?”

“I want my daughter to be alright.”

“What kind of pizza, Jackie?”

Her eyes fell. “I’m not hungry.”

“Jackie,” the new Pete said, “you’ve got to eat. It’s been a long day for all of us. You, too, Rose.”

Jackie stared at her daughter. 

Rose eventually nodded. 

“Whatever. I’ll eat whatever you’re getting, Mickey.”

The timeline flashed forward. The third morning. A hand on her shoulder shook her awake. “Rose.” It was Mickey’s voice. “Rose, wake up. It’s almost noon.”

She groaned. “What, Mickey?”

“Come on. We’re going out today.”

“I’m not.”

“Yes, you are. There’s lots of things to see in this London. I wanna show you around a bit.”

She sat up. “I don’t care about this London.”

“It’s going to be your new home--”

“I’m not staying here. The Doctor will be here any day now, and he’ll take me home.”

“But he’s not here now.”

“But he will be.”

“What would he think of you right now, Rose? Moping about like this?”

“He…”

“You’ve hardly eaten. You’re not taking care of yourself. This isn’t you. If he showed up, would you want him to see you like this?”

“No,” she said quietly. He’d be disappointed.

“Then budge. Go take a shower, eat some breakfast, something. Do anything. But you can’t just lay here forever, waiting for him.”

“Alright,” she said quietly.

“You’ll come with me?”

“Yeah.” She smiled lightly. “I’ve missed you, you stupid lump.”

Mickey chuckled. “There’s my Rose.”

The timeline flashed forward again. Months down the road. A voice shook her awake.  _ Rose. _ His voice. His voice, but not himself. 

He’d not made it through.

A ghost on a beach. Rose wept as he vanished from sight forever. An unfinished sentence.

Flash forward, eighty years. She stared down at his casket, her hands still soft and supple. She was bound in near-eternal youth, while he’d withered and aged. A part-human him... 

_ What? How? _

He backed out of the timelines, his hearts racing again. Eighty years on, and she was still young?

The timelines dissolved in a brilliant flash of light, the possibility gone forever, but the memory would haunt him for a while. He was meant to see all that.

He heard something faint. Was that… music? Yes, a song in the room, all too familiar to him, the TARDIS. But if the TARDIS was in her mind, the only explanation for everything could be… 

“Bad Wolf,” he whispered, removing his hands from her temples.

“What?”

“Med bay. Now.” He pulled her off the sofa and practically ran. 

“What about Bad Wolf? I thought you pulled the TARDIS from my head.”

“I did. I need to run some tests.”

“Am I going to die?”

He stopped abruptly, and she took a step back at the anger in his expression. “No.” His eyes softened. “No. I won’t let that happen.”

“Okay,” she whispered.

He held her gaze for a moment longer before turning towards the lab again and pulling her along. Once there, he instructed her to sit on an exam table. “I’ve got to take some of your blood, and I’ll do some other tests. I’m sorry if all this is a bit uncomfortable or vague, but I promise I'll explain. It’ll be over before you can say ‘banana.’”

She giggled. “It’s alright. Do what you need to do. I don't understand science-y stuff anyway.”

He kissed her forehead and set about working. The mass spectrometer beeped after a while. “That’ll be your bloodwork,” the Doctor said as he rushed to a monitor and donned his glasses. He scanned the figures. “Everything’s normal, except… no. That’s impossible.”

“What?”

“TARDIS, bring up a hologram of her and my DNA, please. Rose, look at this.” The TARDIS displayed a holographic image of a triple and double helix, except the double was encased in a sheath of light. “Time Lords,” he began, pointing at his, “have a double helix, just like humans, except we have a third strand attached to ours. That, in combination with our binary vascular system, among other things, is what makes our biology superior to yours by a landslide.”

“Hey!” She elbowed him.

“But you… it’s not exactly a third strand. You’ve not become a Time Lady, per se, but your DNA’s changed. It’s surrounded by bits of… TARDIS, I suppose, infused with the vortex. I removed it, yes, but not before you’d decided to do some of your own renovations. And it’s been developing over time. Hence why you could sense the shift in timelines.”

“Mum…”

He removed his glasses and looked at her. “What?”

“She and I, we had a row before all this happened today… she said I was different. Stupid me, like a teenage girl, shoved her off.” Tears welled up.

“Mothers do know their children better than anyone else. How did she say you’d changed?”

“She said I looked like you. She said eventually I wasn’t even gonna be human anymore. She didn’t mean literally, I know.”

“Everyone changes, though. It’s a part of life. Look at me. I’d know better than anyone else.”

“Yeah.”  


“Every parent and child go through this. Look at you, all you’ve seen and done, traveling with me. It was bound to happen, my brilliance rubbing off on you," to which he received another good elbow. He caught her arm and laughed. "Even if this hadn’t happened! I jest, of course. You've always been brilliant. You didn't need me at all. It's more the other way round."  


She looked up at him. "You mean it?"

"Every word. Right now, you’re feeling guilty because she’s a world away. Nothing wrong with that either. It’s natural.”

“Am I still human?”

“Of course you are, with a bit of enhancements.”

She gestured towards the hologram. “So what does this mean for me?” 

“I don’t know. You’re at least time-sensitive. There could be other side effects.” He examined the hologram again. “A longer lifespan, at least. You’re connected to the TARDIS now, just like me.”

She touched his arm. “Does that mean I can stay with you longer?”

He smiled. “Perhaps forever is a bit longer now, yeah, if that last image was any indication.” He reached for her hand. “But for now, let’s focus on a way to see your mum. I couldn’t come through in the alternate timeline myself, but I was at least able to get a message through.” He started off, but stopped when Rose didn’t.

“Doctor?” 

He turned. “Yes?”

She wrapped her other arm around her stomach and looked at the floor. “I’m really sad about my mum, yeah? But she’s got Pete now. She won’t be alone now. But…” She met his eyes. “I’m really glad I’m with you.”

He squeezed her hand. “Me, too. I don’t have the fortitude to imagine it any other way.”

She wrapped her arms around him. “You’d be lost without me, as I recall.”

He lightly chuckled and returned her embrace. “Don’t I know it.”

“I just want to stay here for a moment.”

“Me, too."  


So they did, for far longer than a moment.


End file.
